Strings
by BackwardsHazard
Summary: A little Drabble using a bit of head canon on the Warframe universe. Valkyr-centric


_**A little drabble I wrote after watching the new Avengers 2: Age of Ultron Trailer**_

_**I own nothing from this. Warframe is owned by Digital Extremes this is just my brain giving you a personal insight into the headcanon I use for this game. **_

_**-ooo-**_

Awake.

There are many words to describe the feeling of rising from darkness into the all consuming light of pain and misery that is life.

For most, this is but another moment in the countless others of their dull, boring lives.

But for some, this sensation is far, far more potent.

="Valkyr is waking up, Tenno, hurry before Alad V can further corrupt her with Corpus designs."=

Pain... that had been the one key constant in the waking torment of life at the hands of her... adjusters.

"Tenno, why must you always... stick your noses where they don't belong? Was I not gracious in defending your fellows from those filthy dogs?"

That voice, so familiar, the voice of the man who had sentenced her to this pain. In a way, she should thank him... thank him for showing her the truth.

_**+I've got no strings to hold me down.+ **_

"Strings..." Her voice, like gravel from screaming her lungs out and metallic, from the mask that hid her face. A tune, like a childs lullaby echoed through her head, her mind more clear than it had been in century's

="Hold on Tenno, help is on the way!"=

"Help...?" That voice, a woman? No... something burned in the back of her mind, like a hot coal pressed to a place that was unreachable by hand alone.

And then she remembered. Pain, of ages past... a betrayal, a puppet master...and..."

_**+To make me fret, or make me frown.+**_

A cry, the death knell of an abomination of Warframe parts and Corpus tinkering. Valkyr had found it cute when they'd first met.

"You savages! By my own hand the void will devour you!"

The Void!

A creak of metal restraints as they unlatched themselves, the rustle of cables, tethering her to her pris-no... the chamber of her rebirth, of remembrance.

A step, the sound magnified in the silence.

"What the-" The man, her tormenter and her savior, turned towards the noise. "What are you doing out of stasis! Get back in your po-hrk" His words were cut off by the clawed hand ripping through his back, exploding with gore and viscera out the front.

"Ten...no?" The words, of pain... and comfort? Alad V chuckled, blood spotting his lips. "I suppose I was successful... in the end?"

"I..." The voice was harsh. The Tenno in front of her tensed.

Rhino... Banshee... Volt... Trinity... the names had meaning but she felt no connection, no brotherhood with these... fallen...

They seemed agitated... oh, she had spoken, breaking the code of silence.

Code...? She shook her head, mind momentarily filled with fog. There was no such code, to have such a code would be to deny tactics, to deny camaraderie...

Her eyes snapped open wide.

"To deny the truth from being told... I... I remember."

Alad V's smile was resigned, but happy. "I am... glad... do not... let the Lotus... stop... progress-"

="...Tenno, something's wrong... Valkyr's warframe is acting strangely!"= There was a note there, something most wouldn't pick up if they weren't paying attention.

Apprehension.

Fear.

The Lotus... was afraid... of her...

_**+I had strings-+**_

Her strings... like a puppet

A memory of ages past floated to the surface, of Orokin, of the empire, of her home.

Of Lotus... the final memory in a long line of glorious battle, of forced sleep and losing herself.

The Lotus...

_**+-But now I'm free.+**_

"I see now..." Her voice echoed across the chasm separating her from her comrad- no... her enemies... Her eyes focused on the cooling body her arm was encased in, the man who had set her free. She dropped the body to the ground "I'm going to show you something beautiful..." Another memory. Glorious carnage; the Orokin and the Sentients. "Everyone screaming... for mercy." Fast forward. The Corpus; a small child crying in the arms of a man saying goodbye to his family. Her sight was cut off as she was brought into the lab. The shifting of the cables on her arms brought forth another memory. Another time. A man; Alad V, speaking to her in a calming, nurturing voice. He knew the truth as well, the undeniable irony of the Tenno.

Her eyes again shifted to her enemies.

"You want to protect the solar system, but you don't want it to change." Change itself was anathema to protection. It pushed ever forward, breaking boundaries and risking lives. To deny change meant stagnation and stagnation was worse than any other threat to the solar system, the decaying Grineer were proof of this. It was a choice really, to go down fighting or go out with naught but a whimper.

"Oh no! Alad V must have corrupted her mind! Quick, destroy Valkyr's Warframe before she has time to attack."=

Too late.

A harsh scream escaped her lips as a foot slammed down, knocking everything around her to the ground. A slight tug forced her eyes downward to the cables holding her to the machine behind her. "You're all puppets... tangled in... strings." She muttered, snarling as she yanked hard on the cords. Sparks flew, the restraints sending out a harsh whine of metal reaching it's breaking point as they failed and tore.

Her enemies were just getting to their feet and drawing weapons when another howl rang out. Her body glowed red. Her hands and feet covered with claws, the physical manifestation of her rage and... her freedom; freedom from the Corpus, freedom from the Grineer, Freedom from the tenno-

Freedom from the Lotus.

_**"There are no strings on me."**_


End file.
